


a certain type of wind has swept me up

by eversall



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-12 13:40:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5668048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eversall/pseuds/eversall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I think it’s unfair that basically everyone in my life was involved in space pirating at some point.” Emma says, mostly joking but a little hurt in between too. Snow looks at her with a tightness around her eyes that isn’t usually there.<br/>“Forgive me if I didn’t want to raise my infant daughter as an intergalactic criminal.” She sighs.<br/>.<br/>It’s – complicated. But apparently traveling through space together is a good way to start.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a certain type of wind has swept me up

**Author's Note:**

> right, sorry, this is very self-indulgent because i wanted captain swan IN SPACE AS SPACE PIRATES. this fic is very bare bones, at some point it will be fleshed out perhaps, there is definitely more planned for the future because i have space pirates headcanons, and I just. ack. this definitely isn't my favorite thing I've written. but SPACE PIRATES. sorry if this fic is offensively bad.  
> title taken from sea of lovers by christina perri

“It’s – its fine.” she says, stammering a little, before she gathers herself up and says, stronger this time, “What I mean to say is – I wanted this. I asked for it.”

“But it’s – it’s a – you were happy before, is the thing.” Snow responds, looking at a loss. “I would have thought – “

“I wasn’t happy.” Emma says, looking up at the ceiling where Henry painted the solar system for her, even though she hadn’t asked, not really. But she wouldn’t tell him no. “I couldn’t have been – I wanted these worlds to be true. And now they are. And they’re a part of me too.”

“I’m a part of you.” Snow says slowly. “I’m your mother.”

“Not really though.” she says “Not when you think about it.”

.

It had been Henry who had asked her. He’d appeared out of the blue, ten years old and every bit as serious and wise as she had been broken and confused at his age, and asked her to come on an adventure with him. She’d trusted him.

“Space pirates?” she’d shouted when she’d found out where he was taking him. “My son is a wanted criminal?”

“Lower your voice, Ms. Swan.” Regina Mills, his adopted mother, had said in a clipped voice. She didn’t want Emma on board but Henry insisted.

“I want both my moms with me.” he’d said earnestly, and she hadn’t asked, not really, but she wouldn’t tell him no.

“She’s not your mother.” Regina says spitefully, drawing Henry close to her as Emma looks on. “Not really. Not when you think about it.”

.

They pulled off the heist successfully, getting Gold off of the Intergalaxy Council Seat and managing to secure enough powerful items for Emma to begin to learn to use her magic. Regina taught her, slowly and not at all patiently.

“I prefer my gun.” Emma had said one practice session, breathing hard as she looked at the seventh candle she’d managed to blow up.

“I preferred it when you weren’t on this spaceship.” Regina had yelled back, and Henry had sighed at them from where he sat in the corner, older and even wiser still.

“Mom,” he’d said, something ancient in his voice as he rolled the Author’s pen around in his hand, “we’re past this now, aren’t we?”

Regina had sighed and looked steadily at Emma, assessing “I guess we are, Ms. Swan.” Emma flicked a glance at the eighth candle, and it flickered to life, a steady, small flame.

“I think you being an awful person helps, Regina.” She’d said wryly as Henry and Regina had laughed and laughed and laughed.

.

She’s not entirely surprised that Neal was a space pirate too. She visits his grave – the one in the Council cemetery, because Gold did _use_ to be on the Council and family members are buried there too.

“You dragged your son and me back into the pirating world.” she says to him, her hands on her hips as she stares at the glowing inscription above his final resting place. “I didn’t even know pirates existed.”

“Was he happy, Ms. Swan?” a rough voice asks, and Emma has her gun trained on Gold before her next breath. The slimy man holds his hands up in the air and Belle steps out beside him, wary.

“Put the gun down, Emma.” She says in her lilting voice. “You know he won’t try anything here.”

“Was he happy.” Gold asks. “That’s all I want to know. Was stranding himself on Earth really worth it.”

“Yeah.” Emma says, thinking about how happy Neal had looked when they’d broken into old lighthouses late at night. “He was happy. But maybe – maybe not worth it.”

.

Killian Jones is obviously well-known throughout the world of pirates, and Emma follows all the intergalactic news channels religiously because there’s a lot in this world she’s missed. So it’s not like she doesn’t know who he is, but when a man with a hook gets in her way as she’s trying to get a golden dragon-heart, she doesn’t think as she trusses him up like a turkey and leaves him there. He’s partially drunk, is the thing, and that’s probably why she was able to easily overpower him then.

“He’s been a pirate for longer than any of us have.” Regina explains as she skillfully navigates their ship around stars. Jones – known as Captain Hook, _seriously_ – is doing the space vehicle equivalent of tailgating, and it’s irking Emma to no end. “He’s mostly not the good kind.”

“He’s an idiot.” Emma says dismissively. “He tried to get to the dragon _drunk_.” Henry looks star-struck at this revelation, which probably isn’t good.

When Jones tries to kidnap her in revenge, he gets a vengeful Snow and Charming in return who have just also boarded the ship despite Emma’s abrupt dismissal of her mother.

“I think it’s unfair that basically everyone in my life was involved in space pirating at some point.” Emma says, mostly joking but a little hurt in between too. Snow looks at her with a tightness around her eyes that isn’t usually there.

“Forgive me if I didn’t want to raise my infant daughter as an intergalactic criminal.” She sighs. “Besides, don’t you think your father and I paid the price for it?” Regina shifts uncomfortable in her seat. _She_ was the one who put a curse on Snow and Charming when they landed on Earth, forcing them to abandon Emma.

It’s – complicated. But apparently traveling through space together is a good way to start.

.

“Kid.” Emma says exasperatedly when Henry shadows her on Venus-B40. Over two galaxies away, and humans _still_ like to name things after their home.

“Mom.” He sulks. “I’m not a kid anymore. I need to learn these things.”

“I don’t think the middle of the raid was a good time for this.” She says. “Go on, contact Regina and get back on the spaceship. I’ll train you, and you can come on the next one.”

“Sure.” Henry says reasonably, but hours later Emma finds out that he didn’t follow her instructions one bit when he shows up with a battered and bruised looking Killian Jones in tow.

“ _Kid_.” Emma says.

.

“Is this really necessary?” Regina asks. “I vote we dump his sorry ass at the nearest fuel city and get on with it.”

“What happened to the _Jolly Roger_?” Emma asks, reluctant to talk to him but still curious as hell. Jones glares.

“Isn’t it obvious, Swan?” he asks. “It was stolen from me.”

“I thought you might have just drunk it away.” Emma mutters.

“What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?” Jones asks, irritated. His accent is disarmingly attractive.

“Everyone, calm down.” Charming says, his voice steady and reassuring. “Hook, why don’t you get some rest and we’ll find somewhere safe to drop you off.”

“Aren’t you lot supposed to be the Saviors, or something?” Jones bellows. “Don’t you want to help me get my ship back?”

“Just one Savior, actually.” Emma says, her hand resting on her hip. “And we don’t help immoral pirates.”

Jones snorts. “That’s rich. Let me tell you, then, the very immoral story of my stolen ship.”

.

They end up helping him anyway. The Queen of Hearts and the Dark One isn’t really something you want to leave to chance and a drunkard pirate. After that, Jones becomes a sort of permanent fixture on the ship, and no one can get rid of him. He gets the _Jolly Roger_ back, but it sits in a high-end repair shop, a hollow shell that isn’t even close to the golden beauty Jones had made it into.

One day Emma finds him sitting by the observation deck, staring at the passing space junk.

“I won my first love in that ship, and lost her too.” he drawls, taking a swig from his flask. “Can’t believe it, after all these years.”

Emma rolls her eyes and moves on, feeling a pang of sympathy for him.

.

“It’s our anniversary.” Snow says when Regina asks about the delicate teardrop necklace around her neck. “David gave it to me this morning.”

“You go by your normal names?” Belle asks from where she’s hitched a ride with them.

“It became a big part of our lives.” David calls out. “We couldn’t let go of it that easily.”

Emma thinks about a big house with a picket fence and a dog and maybe a little brother and feels a bitter ache rise in her. She’s not – at the end of the day, she’s not a pirate, but she’s not a human either. It’s fine. It’s _fine_.

.

“What’s that, Henry?” she asks as she catches the kid with an Earth newspaper. “Did your reader break?”

“Sometimes it’s good to read the classics.” Her kid responds wisely. She arches an eyebrow at him.

“Must be a true classic then,” She says, gesturing at the paper date, “if it’s from over twenty years ago.”

“Look.” Henry says instead. “Grandma said I could find this in here.” He points to a section in births.

_Emma Swan, born to parents David Charming and Mary-Margaret “Snow” White._

.

“You’re going about it all wrong.” The pirate smirks lazily one evening as he watches her practice levitating water for the thousandth time.

“Really.” Emma grits out. “Tell me more, pirate.” One of the jars of water melts into the floor, bubbling and hissing.

“It’s not that you’re trying to control your power.” He says, drawing his sword and sauntering over. “It’s that you’re asking it to help you. You’re guiding it. Magic,” he continues, “isn’t a child to be corralled. It’s an extension of you, like a weapon.”

Emma glances at him warily.

“I spent decades chasing the Crocodile.” Jones says, throwing his hands up. “Give me a little credit, love.”

The water lifts itself gracefully, merry and bright. The stream grows taller and taller and shapes itself into a ship that Emma lets float around the room.

Jones laughs in delight, and the sound makes him sound young and carefree. His eyes, Emma notice, are shockingly blue.

.

“Well Hook seems to have taken a liking to you.” Snow whispers to Emma as she sits down with her lunch. Emma rolls her eyes.

“He and I have been talking, that’s all.” She says, shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

“You two go out on _raids_ together.” Snow responds gleefully. “He won’t work with or trust anyone else.”

“He’s just here for his ship.” Emma says, unable to keep the slight disappointment out of her voice.

“Oh honey.” Snow says, smiling ruefully. “Don’t think like that. Enjoy the memories you make; don’t try to write them off as false.” Her eyes crinkle at the corners as she beams at Emma, and she’s so full of unconditional warmth and love no matter how much Emma pushes her away and – something rises in Emma’s throat and she abruptly stands up.

“I have to go.” She mutters, running away like she always does.

.

It’s fine. It’s _all_ fine.

Also, everything is going to hell, but it’s _fine_.

She’d gone in to save Henry, but now Regina is stuck between saving Robin and letting Hook go and Emma can _see_ the moment Regina decides.

“No.” she whispers, but the giant spider picks an unconscious Hook up anyways and Emma screams and screams and screams.

“ _No._ ” she bellows, and the magic rushes out of her with a force she’s never had, and she knows exactly how to let it creep into the spider and rend it apart, limb by limb.

“Knew you cared, love.” Hook says hoarsely when she reaches him, before he passes out. Her face flames and she keeps silent.

Its fine and it’s also the worst thing that’s ever happened to her because here she is falling for the wrong person _again_ , but, you know, its fine.

.

“What do you _mean_ the ship has been ready for months?” Emma asks, shocked. Across from her, Snow has a hand over her mouth.

“I…just what I told you, ma’am.” The confused voice at the repair shop says. “We finished the _Jolly Roger_ six months ago.”

Emma slams the end call button and presses the intercom instead.

“ _Hook_.” She says threateningly. Snow looks up at her.

“Sweetheart- “ she begins, and Emma flinches. Snow sees it on her face and retreats, pulling her hand back and looking devastated.

“I’m sorry.” Emma says without thinking. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just – I’m really overwhelmed right now, Mom, and I can’t deal with – oh my _God_.” She groans, because yeah, really, she chose _this_ moment to accept her mother.

Snow’s eyes are shining but her face is wary, reluctant to approach Emma, but Emma looks at her mother and thinks _fuck it_. She pushes forward and hugs Snow, and Snow’s arms come up around her automatically.

“My baby, my baby. My lovely Emma.” Snow murmurs into her hair as Emma lets herself fall into the ocean of love Snow has for her.

“Uh-“ Jones’ voice sounds, “You called for me?”

.

“This is – new for me.” Emma whispers later, into the stillness of the night.

Killian opens his eyes lethargically, a slow smile curving his lips.

“Bedding a pirate?” he asks, his accent thickening his voice into a rough, low brogue.

“You know what I mean.” Emma says meaningfully, and Killian sighs.

“Yeah, love.” He whispers back, his arms coming to pull her closer. “But you’re stuck with me for a while. The _Jolly Roger_ – I rented it out, you know. I’m not getting it back for a few years.”

“Killian!” Emma says, shock coloring her voice. “ _Why_ , you foolish pirate?” He’s quiet for a while, and Emma pinches him viciously.

“Ow.” He complains. “Alright, alright, I – I used the money to pay off the bounty hunters after me. I just wanted a clean slate if I was traveling with you.” Emma can’t breathe through the wave of adoration that crashes over her. She settles instead for kissing him soundly, pouring her gratitude and feelings into it.

He breaks the kiss, breathless. “It’s still a pirate’s life for me, you know.” He remarks, nuzzling close to her. “You lot aren’t exactly law-abiding citizens yourselves.”

“I know.” Emma says fiercely, a swell of pride in her chest. “I’m a space pirate. It’s what we do.”

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: now you can find me on [ tumblr!!! ](http://eversall.tumblr.com/) i know, you're SO excited *sarcasm*


End file.
